The Sensation Of Sight

I've known Buzz McLaughlin for years: we corresponded and crossed paths at several theatre conferences, I've gotten a lot of value out of his handbook "The Playwright's Process," he came up to see Pacific Theatre's production of his play SISTER CALLING MY NAME.

Quite separately, I met Aaron Wiederspahn when I went down to Orlando to lead some writing workshops and take part in a 24-hour playwriting competition.  It was a couple years later that I found out Buzz and Aaron had met, and started up a film development and production company. And here's the first fruits! Get a load of that cast...

trailer

Greetings from Buzz McLaughlin and Aaron Wiederspahn!

As partners in Either/Or Films, we are proud to announce the national theatrical release of our first independent film THE SENSATION OF SIGHT by Monterey Media, who will be launching the film in theatres around the country later this summer.

Beginning the release, THE SENSATION OF SIGHT will return to New Hampshire, where it was filmed and where it premiered theatrically last November to a sold-out, 900-seat theatre in Keene, the Colonial. That night, over 300 people were turned away, prompting attention by Monterey Media and the desire for a return engagement.

From July 18 through July 31 THE SENSATION OF SIGHT will be screened at the Putnam Theatre in Keene State College's Redfern Arts Center (603-358-2160--www.keene.edu/putnam/films.cfm. For directions and a map, see www.keene.edu and click on "About KSC"). The Redfern Arts Center is located on Brickyard Pond, which can be accessed via Wyman Way off 229 Main Street.

Screening times: July 18-24 at 7 p.m. with an added matinee at 2 p.m. on July 20, and July 25-31 at 9 p.m. Both of us will be available for a Q & A after the 7 p.m. screening on Friday, July 18. Aaron wrote and directed THE SENSATION OF SIGHT and Buzz is the executive producer. Other producers include Mark Constance, David Strathairn, Madeline Ryan, and Darren Moorman.

Starring Academy Award nominee David Strathairn, THE SENSATION OF SIGHT follows Finn, an English teacher turned encyclopedia salesman, as he deals with tragedy and mid-life crisis. After leaving his family and career in search of answers to the age-old question "Why?", sales and encounters are made that lead Finn ultimately to an unexpected and sublime awakening.

Spout.com calls THE SENSATION OF SIGHT "a very beautiful film...informed by a transcendent sensibility," and Angelfire.com writes: "The Sensation of Sight is an independent film with a huge heart, a real gem in cinema rarely found today." (See the poster for more comments about the film; under the poster you can click to see the trailer, and if you'd like to check out our website, click here.)

During its international festival run, the film also received accolades from audiences in Spain, Brazil, China, Lithuania, Poland, and Estonia, as well as around the U.S. It won Best Feature at the New Hampshire Film Festival and Best Cinematography at the Durban International Film Festival in South Africa.

Monterey Media plans a DVD release after the film's theatrical run. Online pre-orders are already available at such sites as Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

We'll keep you updated on the theatres around the country where THE SENSATION OF SIGHT will be playing.

THANKS!

SAVED runs Off-Broadway

Variety:

"The general trend for screen-to-stage adaptations is to make everything larger than life -- broadening the comedy, heightening the romance and rendering the characters sufficiently loud and cartoonish to play to the back row. But the creative team behind the tuner adaptation of the 2004 indie pic, which satirizes life in an evangelical Christian high school, has gone the opposite route. "Saved" the musical has reined in the spoofing and is softening the edges of the characters, playing them more empathetically. It even excises the exclamation mark from the film's title. ...

Librettist-lyricist John Dempsey:"Every time we took an honest, sympathetic approach, the show seemed to work," he explains. "Any time we went toward harsher satire or commentary, it stopped working." That's why Hilary Faye, the righteous leader of a teen-pop gospel group played by Mandy Moore in the movie, gets a sympathetic number in act two. She makes more sense as a real person, not as a caricature." ...

Composer-lyricist Michael Friedman: "Our audience isn't necessarily from a world where people speak in tongues or practice that really charismatic Christianity. It's more complicated and more satisfying to take them to an emotional place, where those beliefs suddenly seem very approachable." ...

Here's a link to the Playbill article. And NY Times has a slideshow interview with composer Michael Friedman. Runs at Playwrights Horizons, closes June 22.

Master Harold films this summer

This from Variety.com;

Danny Glover will reprise his stage role in a bigscreen adaptation of Athol Fugard's apartheid-era play "Master Harold... and the Boys." Pic will be helmed by Lonny Price, who directed Glover in the recent Broadway revival and played opposite him in the stage production 20 years ago. The title role will be played by Thomas Sangster, the "Love Actually" star who'll play the title role in the Steven Spielberg-directed "Tintin." The U.K./South Africa co-production will begin production on July 10 in Durban, South Africa.

Thanks, Peter.

Halliwell's Top 1000, by John Walker

For years, Leslie Halliwell published an annual guide to film, video and DVD, in partnership with John Walker.  When Mr Halliwell died, Walker took over the project on his own and changed the format from a straightforward listing alphabetical listing (over 23,000 films in the 2002 edition) to his own personally ranked selection of the 1000 greatest films.

Here's the list.  I'm working on adding years, countries and directors to the list.  When I've completed that, I'll repost with the more complete information - though for now I will offer this rundown of Walker's top directors, preceded by the number of films included in the list;

• 17 Alfred Hitchcock
  
• 12 George Cukor
  
• 10 Billy Wilder
  
• 10 Martin Scorsese
  
• 9 David Lean
  
• 9 Frank Capra
  
• 9 John Ford
  
• 8 François Truffaut
  
• 8 John Huston
  
• 8 Louis Malle
  
• 8 Luis Buñuel
  
• 8 Michael Curtiz
  
• 8 William Wyler
  
• 7 Akira Kurosawa
  
• 7 Carol Reed
  
• 7 Federico Fellini
  
• 7 Fred Zinnemann
  
• 7 Fritz Lang
  
• 7 Ingmar Bergman
  
• 7 Luchino Visconti
  
• 7 Rene Clair
  

Here's the list.  (Oh, if you'd like the list in an excel spreadsheet, email soulfoodmovies@ronreed.org and I'll send you a copy.)

1 Tokyo Story 
2 Rules of the Game  (La Regle du Jeu)
3 Lawrence of Arabia
4.1 Godfather, The
4.2 Godfather Part II
4.3 Godfather Part III
5 Seven Samurai 
6 Citizen Kane 
7 Raging Bull 
8 Vertigo
9 Some Like It Hot
10 8 1/2 
11 Dr Strangelove
12 Singin' in the Rain 
13 Taxi Driver
14 Searchers, The 
15 Seventh Seal, The 
16 Sweet Smell of Success 
17 Sunset Boulevard 
18 Third Man, The  
19.1 Apu Trilogy; Pather Panchali
19.2 Apu Trilogy; Aparajito
19.3 Apu Trilogy: The World of Apu
20 Children of Paradise  (Les Enfants du Paradis)
21 Discreet Charm Of The Bourgeoisie, The 
22 Andrei Rublev 
23 Passion of Joan of Arc, The 
24 Viridiana 
25 Toy Story 
26 Rashomon
27 Wild Strawberries 
28 To Be or Not to Be 
29 Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
30.1 Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring 
30.2 Lord of the Rings: Two Towers
30.3 Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
31 2001 - A Space Odyssey 
32 Battle of Algiers, The 
33 Alexander Nevsky 
34 Belle de Jour
35 Casablanca 
36 Goodfellas 
37 Tristana
38 Magnificent Ambersons, The
39 Breaking the Waves 
40 Sullivan's Travels
41 Frankenstein 
42 Battleship Potemkin 
43 Double Indemnity 
44 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
45 Weekend
46 Jules and Jim
47 Breathless (A Bout de Souffle)
48 Bonnie and Clyde 
49 Wings of Desire
50 Fitzcarraldo 
51 If 
52 Wild Bunch, The
53 Red Shoes, The
54 Annie Hall
55 Tom Jones 
56 On the Waterfront 
57 West Side Story
58 Saturday Night And Sunday Morning 
59 Grapes of Wrath, The
60 Great Expectations 
61 Leopard, The
62 Schindler's List 
63 Ashes and Diamonds 
64 A Nous La Liberte
65.1 400 Blows, The (Antoine Doinel Tetralogy)
65.2 Stolen Kisses (Antoine Doinel Tetralogy)
65.3 Bed and Board (Antoine Doinel Tetralogy)
65.4 Love On The Run (Antoine Doinel Tetralogy)
66 Mr Smith Goes to Washington 
67 Monsieur Hulot's Holiday
68 Laurel & Hardy short films
69 Chinatown
70.1 Star Wars
70.2 Empire Strikes Back, The
70.3 Return of the Jedia
71 Gosford Park
72 Rear Window
73 Aguirre the Wrath of God 
74 Short Film About Killing, A 
75 M*A*S*H 
76 Cries & Whispers 
77 All the President's Men 
78 Nights of Cabiria 
79 King Kong 
80 Gone with the Wind 
81 All Quiet on the Western Front 
82 Fanny and Alexander
83 North BY Northwest
84 Band Wagon, The
85 Yojimbo 
86 Brief Encounter 
87 Deliverance
88 Fargo 
89 Cabaret
90 Once Upon a Time in America 
91 Days of Heaven 
92 Adventures of Robin Hood, The 
93 High Noon 
94 His Girl Friday
95 Manhattan
96 Duck Soup
97 Henry V 
98 This Is Spinal Tap
99 Bad Day at Black Rock
100 Graduate, The
101 Charlie Chaplin Short Comedy Classics
102 American Beauty
103 Z
104 Unforgiven
105 Maltese Falcon, The
106 ET - The Extra-Terrestrial 
107 It's a Wonderful Life
108 Blue Angel, The
109 Bridge On The River Kwai, The
110 Gold Rush, The
111 Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
112 Hustler, The
113 Kind of Loving, A
114 Walkabout
115 City Lights
116 On the Town
117 Oliver Twist
118 Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, The
119 After Life
120 Cinema Paradiso
121 Au revoir les enfants
122 David Copperfield
123 Day at the Races, A
124 Color of Pomegranates, The
125 Celebration, The
126 Day for Night
127 Ossessione
128 General, The
129 Bicycle Thief, The
130 Three Colors Trilogy
131 Jour de fête
132 Kes
133 Lacombe Lucien
134 Dead, The
135 La Strada
136 BRD Trilogy; The Marriage of Maria Braun, Veronika Voss, Lola
137 Hard Day's Night, A
138 Dead of Night
139 Kind Hearts and Coronets
140 Devil & Daniel Webster, The
141 Open City
142 Napoleon
143 Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde (1931)
144 Don't Look Now
145 Driver, The
146 In the Heat of the Night
147 Way Out West
148 Enigma of Kaspar Hauser, The
149 Bride of Frankenstein
150 Mean Streets
151 Lost Weekend, The
152 Knack, The
153 39 Steps, The
154 LA Confidential
155 Man in the White Suit, The
156 Kings Row
157 Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
158 Barbarian Invasions, The
159 Last Metro, The
160 Stagecoach
161 Last Picture Show, The
162 An American in Paris
163 Badlands
164 Lavender Hill Mob, The
165 Marseilles Trilogy; Marius, Fanny, Cesar
166 Pelle the Conqueror
167 Touch of Evil
168 Persona
169 Paths of Glory
170 Alien
171 12 Angry Men
172 Manchurian Candidate, The
173 Stairway To Heaven
174 Man for All Seasons, A
175 Mephisto
176 Midnight Cowboy
177 Psycho
178 Le Million
179 Les Misérables (1935)
180 King of Comedy, The
181 Destry Rides Again
182 Network
183 Night at the Opera, A
184 October
185 Tin Drum, The
186 Oh Mr Porter!
187 Passport to Pimlico
188 Lady Vanishes, The
189 Diary of a Country Priest
190 Throne of Blood
191 Piano, The
192 Picnic at Hanging Rock
193 Night of the Hunter, The
194 Kwaidan
195 Pinocchio
196 Player, The
197 Love Me Tonight
198 Thief of Bagdad (1940)
199 Rembrandt
200 M
201 Pygmalion
202 Sons of the Desert
203 Top Hat
204 Philadelphia Story, The
205 Trouble in Paradise
206 Bambi
207 Ran
208 When Harry Met Sally
209 Hunchback of Notre Dame, The
210 Grand Illusion
211 Best Years Of Our Lives, The
212 Solaris
213 Come and See
214 Invasion of the Body Snatchers
215 Whisky Galore
216 Hud
217 Easy Rider
218 Marty
219 Ivan's Childhood (1962)
220 Crumb
221 Blow Up
222 Kid, The
223 Navigator, The
224 Invisible Man, The
225 Fury
226 Magician, The (The Face)
227 le jour se leve (Daybreak)
228 Bank Dick, The
229 An Autumn Afternoon
230 Smiles Of A Summer Night
231 Gigi
232 Birth Of A Nation, The
233 Shoah
234 All About Eve
235 Bringing Up Baby
236 La Belle Noiseuse
237 Intolerance (1916)
238 Fantasia
239 Southern Comfort
240 Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment
241 Exterminating Angel, The
242 Brighton Rock (1947)
243 Trainspotting
244 Blue Velvet
245 Boudu Saved from Drowning
246 Ugetsu
247 Wizard of Oz, The
248 Death in Venice
249 Being There
250 Orphic Trilogy; Blood of a Poet, Orphee, La Testament d'Orphee
251 It Happened One Night
252 Contempt
253 Mutiny on the Bounty
254 Theif, The
255 Hannah and Her Sisters
256 Butcher, The
257 Heimat
258 Aladdin
259 Witness
260 WR - Mysteries of the Organism
261 Strangers on a Train
262 Wages of Fear, The
263 Ladykillers, The
264 Rebecca
265 Kiss Me Deadly
266 Yi Yi: A One and a Two
267 Early Summer
268 Oliver!
269 Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner, The
270 Little Caesar
271 Bill Douglas Trilogy; My Childhood; My Ain Folk; My Way Home
272 Songs From the Second Floor
273 Big Sleep, The
274 Dresser, The
275 Diabolique
276 Turkish Delight
277 Lady Eve, The
278 Education of Vera, The
279 In the Mood for Love
280 Topsy-Turvy
281 All About My Mother
282 Birds, The
283 Army in the Shadows
284 La Beauté du Diable
285 Killing Fields, The
286 Forbidden Games
287 Amadeus
288 Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, The
289 Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore
290 Crowd, The
291 Big Red One, The
292 Nashville
293 Southerner, The
294 10
295 Les Amants
296 Face to Face
297 Gandhi
298 Billy Liar
299 Angels With Dirty Faces
300 Clockwork Orange, A
301 Memento
302 L' Argent
303 Face in the Crowd, A
304 Once Upon a Time in the West
305 Foreign Correspondent
306 Morocco
307 Metropolis
308 Things to Come
309 Queen Christina
310 Breaker Morant
311 Central Station
312 Casque d'Or
313 O Brother Where Art Thou?
314 Day of Wrath
315 Who Framed Roger Rabbit
316 Black Narcissus
317 Animal Crackers
318 And Then There Were None
319 Conformist, The
320 Last Year at Marienbad
321 Conversation, The
322 Christ Stopped at Eboli
323 Funny Games
324 Playtime
325 Triumph of the Will
326 Performance
327 Claire's Knee
328 Lancelot of the Lake
329 Black Robe
330 Spirit of the Beehive, The
331 Go-Between, The
332 Hail the Conquering Hero (1944)
333 Groundhog Day
334 Touch of Zen
335 Straight Story, The
336 My Fair Lady
337 Pianist, The
338 Lady for a Day
339 Burmese Harp, The
340 Y Tu Mama Tambien
341 Usual Suspects, The
342 Son's Room, The
343 Death by Hanging (1968)
344 Do The Right Thing
345 Apocalypse Now
346 Ikiru
347 Le Samourai
348 Sansho the Bailiff
349 Red Sorghum (1987)
350 Lolita
351 Zero for Conduct
352 Ace in the Hole (AKA The Big Carnival)
353 Richard III
354 Amores Perros
355 Jean de Florette
356 Master and Commander
357 Tunes of Glory
358 Life of Oharu, The
359 Being John Malkovich
360 Robocop
361 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
362 Ashani Sanket (Distant Thunder)
363 Night of the Living Dead
364 Kagemusha
365 Family Life
366 Brighter Summer Day, A
367 Limelight (1952)
368 Arsenic and Old Lace
369 Le Feu follet
370 General, The
371 Dogville
372 Sons & Lovers
373 Repentance
374 Eight Men Out
375 Farewell My Concubine
376 Elephant Man, The
377 Padre Padrone
378 Fallen Idol, The
379 Beauty and The Beast (La Belle et la Bete)
380 Dog Day Afternoon
381 Earth
382 Shane
383 Truman Show, The
384 Rocco and His Brothers
385 My Darling Clementine
386 Hospital, The
387 Juliet Of The Spirits
388 Strike
389 Grifters, The
390 Gilda
391 Short Cuts
392 Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, The
393 L'Eclisse
394 Howards End
395 Last Orders
396 Big Parade, The
397 Gospel According to St Matthew, The
398 Killers, The
399 Ride the High Country
400 Red River
401 Goldfinger
402 Murmur of the Heart
403 Hiroshima Mon Amour
404 Henry V (1989)
405 They Shoot Horses Don't They?
406 O Lucky Man!
407 To Be and to Have
408 Monkey Business
409 Tootsie
410 Monty Python and the Holy Grail
411 Hobson's Choice
412 This Man Must Die
413 L' Atalante
414 Shanghai Express
415 Taste of Honey, A
416 American Graffiti
417 Dirty Harry
418 Dumbo
419 Life of Brian
420 Horse Feathers
421 Genevieve
422 How Green Was My Valley
423 Cleo From 5 to 7
424 Jesus of Montreal
425 Gaslight
426 Thelma & Louise
427 Front Page, The
428 La Ronde
429 Ninotchka
430 Assault, The
431 I'm All Right Jack
432 Miracle of Morgan's Creek, The
433 Last Tango in Paris
434 La Chinoise
435 Full Monty, The
436 Felicia's Journey
437 Amarcord
438 Letter From an Unknown Woman (1948)
439 Patton
440 Alice
441 Blue Kite, The
442 Werckmeister Harmonies
443 Sound of Music, The
444 Last Seduction, The
445 Doctor Zhivago
446 UTU
447 Those Who Love Me Can Take the Train
448 Prospero's Books
449 Heaven Can Wait
450 Burnt by the Sun
451 Shakespeare in Love
452 French Connection, The
453 Key Largo
454 Killers, The
455 Pulp Fiction
456 Dinner at Eight
457 Intruder in the Dust
458 Darling
459 Olympische Spiele
460 Newsfront
461 Goodbye Mr Chips
462 Decline of the American Empire, The
463 Lost Horizon
464 It Always Rains on Sunday
465 Lenny
466 Heavenly Creatures
467 Farewell My Lovely
468 Holiday
469 Donnie Brasco
470 Klute
471 Blade Runner
472 Land and Freedom
473 Last Exit to Brooklyn
474 Richard III
475 L'Avventura
476 Woman in the Dunes
477 Les Misérables
478 Innocents with Dirty Hands
479 Day in the Death of Joe Egg, A
480 Husbands and Wives
481 Circle, The
482 Mrs Brown
483 City of Hope
484 In Cold Blood
485 Ploughman's Lunch, The
486 Modern Times
487 Umberto D
488 Long Day Closes, The
489 Love Affair
490 Shadowlands
491 Man Who Knew Too Much, The
492 Onibaba
493 Quiet American, The
494 Notorious
495 Man Who Came to Dinner, The
496 Cyrano de Bergerac
497 Room with a View, A
498 Mon Oncle d'Amerique 
499 Charlie Bubbles 
500 Falstaff Chimes At Midnight 
501 Milou in May
502 Field of Dreams 
503 Raiders of the Lost Ark
504 Scarface 
505 Tillsammans 
506 Mother and Son 
507 Diary for My Children
508 Niagra
509 Kid Brother, The
510 From Russia With Love
511 In The Realm Of The Senses
512 Scarlet Empress, The
513 Mine Own Executioner (1947) 
514 Raise the Red Lantern 
515 Shine 
516 Garden of the Finzi-Continis, The
517 Before the Rain 
518 Reservoir Dogs
519 Private Life of Henry VIII, The
520 Harvey 
521 Green for Danger 
522 Old Dark House, The
523 Mr Deeds Goes to Town 
524 My Name Is Joe 
525 Ginger and Fred 
526 Dr No 
527 Nosferatu 
528 China Syndrome, The
529 Moonlighting
530 All That Jazz
531 Le Cercle Rouge (The Red Circle) 
532 Keep an Eye on Amelia
533 Ordinary People 
534 Candidate, The
535 Way to the Stars, The
536 Miracle on 34th Street 
537 My Learned Friend
538 Nada (1974) 
539 Narrow Margin, The
540 Kolya 
541 Here Comes Mr Jordan 
542 Jezebel 
543 Night to Remember, A
544 Night Train to Munich
545 Ermo (1994) 
546 Nixon
547 Jazz Singer, The
548 My Favorite Wife 
549 Nothing Sacred 
550 Odd Man Out 
551 Asphalt Jungle, The
552 Innocent, The (L'Innocente) 
553 Naked City 
554 White Heat 
555 Death Of A Salesman 
556 Parallax View, The
557 Italian Straw Hat, The 
558 Planet of the Apes 
559 I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang 
560 Of Mice and Men 
561 Nasty Girl, The
562 Hardcore 
563 Time For Drunken Horses, A
564 Our Relations 
565 Lantana 
566 Journey Into Fear (1975) 
567 Palm Beach Story, The
568 Dr Mabuse - The Gambler 
569 Great Race 
570 People vs Larry Flynt, The
571 Ghost Goes West, The
572 Touching the Void 
573 Wind, The
574 Out of Sight 
575 Mr Blandings Builds His Dream House 
576 Once Were Warriors 
577 Pretty Village Pretty Flame 
578 Pride and Prejudice 
579 Private Function, A
580 Scenes From a Marriage 
581 Saving Private Ryan 
582 Meet Me In St Louis 
583 Lovers of the Arctic Circle 
584 Quiet Man, The
585 My Favorite Year 
586 Shootist, The
587 Casino 
588 Dangerous Liaisons 
589 Best Man, The
590 Prisoner of Zenda, The
591 This Sporting Life 
592 Sense and Sensibility 
593 Barton Fink 
594 Sweet Hereafter, The
595 Atlantic City 
596 Four Weddings and a Funeral 
597 Knife in the Water
598 L'Invitation
599 Midsummer Night's Dream, A
600 Story of Qiu Ju, The 
601 Private's Progress
602 Tango 
603 Run Lola Run 
604 Room at the Top 
605 Germinal 
606 Good, the Bad and the Ugly, The 
607 Phantom of Liberty
608 Taking Off 
609 Producers, The
610 Loves of a Blonde 
611 Opposite of Sex, The
612 Best Intentions, The
613 Safety Last!
614 Days and Nights in the Forest 
615 Tragedy of a Ridiculous Man, The
616 Saturday Night Fever
617 Rabbit-Proof Fence
618 Panic in the Streets
619 Ghost Dog 
620 About Schmidt 
621 Secrets and Lies 
622 Sting, The
623 Port of Shadows 
624 Poil de carotte (1925) 
625 Intermezzo 
626 One False Move 
627 Comrades 
628 Man With the Movie Camera 
629 Grave of the Fireflies 
630 Rocky
631 She Done Him Wrong 
632 Strictly Ballroom 
633 Informer, The
634 Maxim Gorky Trilogy
635 Meet John Doe 
636 Sunday Bloody Sunday 
637 Metropolitan 
638 Star Is Born, A
639 Thin Red Line, The
640 Talk of the Town, The
641 Son of Frankenstein / The Ghost of Frankenstein 
642 Chariots of Fire 
643 Crying Game, The
644 Jane Eyre (1943)
645 Pajama Game, The
646 Set-Up, The
647 Pixote  Hector
648 Ship of Fools 
649 Sunshine State 
650 Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, The
651 Happiness 
652 Cabaret Balkan 
653 Those Wonderful Movie Cranks
654 Women in Love 
655 Men, The 
656 Romeo + Juliet 
657 Empire of the Sun
658 Wise Blood (1979) 
659 Daisies 
660 Taste of Cherry 
661 Tree Grows in Brooklyn, A
662 Day in the Country, A
663 Zazie dans le Metro
664 Roaring Twenties, The
665 Bob le Flambeur 
666 42nd Street 
667 Summertime
668 House of Games 
669 Madness Of King George, The
670 Vagabond 
671 Now Voyager 
672 Watchmaker of St Paul, The
673 Lion King, The
674 Way Ahead, The
675 Rosetta 
676 Butcher Boy, The
677 Fat City 
678 Un héros très discret 
679 Spirited Away
680 Hours, The
681 Los Olvidados (Young And The Damned) 
682 War & Peace (1968)
683 Wuthering Heights 
684 Thin Man, The
685 Election 
686 Fistful of Dollars, A
687 Five Graves to Cairo (1943)
688 Bachelor Party 
689 Ruling Class, The
690 Big Chill, The
691 Young Mr Lincoln 
692 Man Who Wasn't There, The
693 Lamerica 
694 From Here to Eternity
695 Hellzapoppin
696 Our Hospitality (1923) 
697 Gladiator 
698 Elizabeth
699 Fail-safe 
700 Seven Days in May 
701 Crossfire
702 Farewell My Lovely
703 Buena Vista Social Club
704 Dracula
705 Closely Watched Trains
706 Christmas Carol, A (Scrooge)
707 Mother
708 Greed
709 One Eyed Jacks
710 Court Jester, The
711 Kramer versus Kramer
712 Late Spring
713 Silence Of The Lambs, The
714 Woodstock
715 Le Fils (The Son)
716 La Terra Trema
717 Three Kings
718 Crimes & Misdemeanors
719 Simple Plan, A
720 Wedding Banquet, The
721 Delicatessen
722 Interrogation
723 Matrix, The
724 Nun's Story, The
725 Treasure Of The Sierra Madre, The
726 Dracula
727 Shrek
728 Damned, The
729 Seven
730 Shadow of a Doubt
731 Defiant Ones, The
732 East is East
733 Ox-Bow Incident, The
734 Man Of Marble / Man Of Iron
735 Niebelungen, The
736 Yol
737 Big Country, The
738 Stormy Weather
739 Cameraman, The
740 Major Barbara
741 Night Of The Demon (Curse Of The Demon)
742 Gregory's Girl
743 Smile
744 Boys Don't Cry
745 Assault on Precinct 13
746 Picture of Dorian Gray, The
747 Woman of the Year
748 Nightmare Before Christmas, The
749 Ivan the Terrible
750 Showboat
751 American Werewolf in London, An
752 Fencing Master, The
753 Golem, The
754 Game, The
755 Hue and Cry
756 Ulee's Gold
757 Sugarland Express
758 Marathon Man
759 This Gun For Hire
760 Blithe Spirit
761 City Slickers
762 Coal Miner's Daughter
763 Day of the Jackal, The
764 Gunga Din
765 Anne and Muriel
766 Sitting Pretty
767 Billy Elliot
768 Asthenic Syndrome, The
769 Quiet Wedding
770 Blue Collar
771 Zelig
772 Music Man, The
773 Reds
774 Ballad of a Soldier
775 Insider, The
776 Dear Diary (Caro Diario)
777 Victim
778 Slight Case Of Murder, A
779 Awful Truth, The
780 Blue Lamp, The
781 I Married A Witch
782 My Man Godfrey
783 State of the Union
784 As Good As It Gets
785 Picnic
786 All The King's Men
787 Moon and Sixpence, The
788 Thunder Rock
789 Friday the Thirteenth
790 Public Enemy
791 Bachelor Mother
792 Man Bites Dog
793 Mary Poppins
794 Double Suicide
795 Life Is Beautiful (La Vita e Bella)
796 Phantom of the Opera
797 Diner
798 Yankee Doodle Dandy
799 Soldier of Orange
800 Cabinet of Dr Caligari
801 Sing As We Go
802 Toy Story 2
803 Will It Snow For Christmas?
804 Spiral Staircase, The
805 Charge of the Light Brigade, The
806 Carry On Up the Khyber
807 Beauty and the Beast
808 Magnolia
809 Night of the Iguana, The
810 Badgad Café
811 Little Foxes, The
812 Women, The
813 Little Women
814 Life of Emile Zola, The
815 Bringing Out The Dead
816 Charley Varrick
817 Cousin, Cousine
818 Folies Bergere
819 49th Parallel
820 Love On The Dole
821 Enfants du Marais, Les
822 Enforcer, The
823 One Hour With You
824 Count of Monte Cristo, The
825 Body Snatcher, The
826 Speed
827 Stanley and Livingstone
828 Scarlet Pimpernel, The
829 House on 92nd Street
830 Julia
831 Boomerang!
832 I'm No Angel
833 Three Musketeers, The
834 Paleface, The
835 My Favorite Blonde
836 Happy Time, The
837 Alexander's Ragtime Band
838 Walk In The Sun, A
839 Fugitive, The
840 Erin Brokovich
841 Sabotage (A Woman Alone)
842 Berlin, Symphony of a Great City
843 Witness For the Prosecution
844 Gay Divorcee, The
845 Sur Mes Levres
847 Pickup on South Street
848 Fourteen Hours
849 Last Laugh, The
850 Arise My Love
851 Damnation
852 Dreamlife Of Angels, The
853 Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, The
854 Baie des Anges, La
855 Cape Fear
856 French Can-Can
856 England Made Me
857 Gimme Shelter
858 Sixth Sense, The
859 Cranes Are Flyiing, The
860 Mandy
861 Best Boy
862 Adaptation
863 Young In Heart, The
864 Hoop Dreams
865 Mr Skeffington
866 Dead End
867 Lady Killer
868 Trilogy: On The Run, An Amazing Couple, After Life
869 Star Is Born, A
870 Kanal
871 Paris, Texas
872 Braveheart
873 Iron Giant, The
874 Apartment, The
875 Withnail and I
876 Big Heat, The
877 Laura
878 Letter, The
879 Witchfinder General (The Conqueror Worm)
880 Thief of Bagdad, The
881 Winslow Boy, The
882 Salvatore Giuliano
883 Pumpkin Eater, The
884 East Of Eden
885.1 Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto
885.2 Samurai II: Duel at Ichijoji Temple
885.3 Samurai III: Duel at Ganryu Island
886 Ghost World
887 Call Me Madam
888 Bowling For Columbine
889 Born on the Fourth of July
890 Titfield Thunderbolt, The
891 Jubilee
892 Femme Infidele, La
893 Ordet
894 Butterfly Murders, The
895 Love (Szerelem)
896 Black God, White Devil
897 Bullitt
898 Melvin and Howard
899 Gunfighter, The
900 Odishon (Audition)
901 Memories of Underdevelopment
902 Get Carter
903 League of Gentlemen, The
904 Mark of Zorro, The
905 Born Yesterday
906 Tampopo
907 Great McGinty, The
908 Great Lie, The
909 Airplane
910 Bedford Incident, The
911 Ben-Hur
912 Straw Dogs
913 Rebel Without a Cause
914 Wicker Man, The
915 Autobus
916 For Me and My Gal
917 My Brilliant Career
918 Nothing But The Best
919 Random Harvest
920 Happiest Days of Your Life, The
921 Lovers and Other Strangers
922 Good Earth, The
923 Midnight
924 Babe
925 Most Dangerous Game, The
926 Saboteur
927 San Francisco
928 Posto, Il (Job, The)
929 Only Two Can Play
930 Prize, The
931 One Hundred and One Dalmatians
932 Hot Rock, The
933 Tobacco Road
934 Alias Nick Beal
935 Private Conversation, A
936 They Won't Forget
937 Sign of the Cross, The
938 Balance, La
939 On Approval
940 My Life As A Dog
941 Repulsion
942 Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey, The
943 Antonia's Line
944 Father Brown (The Detective)
945 Back to the Future
946 Force of Evil
947 Kuhle Wampe (Whither Germany?)
948 Shock Corridor
949 Devils, The
950 Pickpocket
951 Salaam Bombay!
952 Rome Express
953 Bad Company
954 Bombshell
955 Black Swan, The
956 Dodsworth
957 More the Merrier, The
958 Black Eyes
959 Woman in the Window, The
960 Written On The Wind
961 Peeping Tom
962 Stage Door
963 Sea Hawk, The
964 Dodge City
965 Satyricon
966 Blue Bird, The
967 Chicken Run
968 Rains Came, The
969 Black Pirate, The
970 Young Frankenstein
971 Trash
972 Tokyo Godfathers
973 Donnie Darko
974 Lodger, The
975 Last Waltz, The
976 Sherlock Junior
977 Triplettes de Belleville, Les
978 Lover Come Back
979 Witchcraft Through The Ages
980 On Golden Pond
981 Ghost Breakers, The
982 One Hundred Men and a Girl
983 Bowery, The
984 Dark Star
985 Mystery of the Wax Museum
986 Atanarjuat The Fast Runner
987 Man Who Could Work Miracles, The
988 Around the World in Eighty Days
989 Patterns
990 Tokyo Olympiad
991 Jason and the Argonauts
992 Group, The
993 Great Waltz, The
994 Kipps (The Remarkable Mr Kipps)
995 Blair Witch Project, The
996 Starship Troopers
997 Fire Over England
998 Tin Pan Alley
999 Blackmail
1000 Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The

Ramin Bahrani's Top Ten Criterions: High Soul Food Content

I asked to review MAN PUSH CART for Christianity Today Movies, but it was a bit too far off the beaten track for their mandate. Now that I read film-maker Ramin Bahrani's list of his Top Ten Criterion disks, and note how many soul food movies and soul food directors are included, then read his reasons for selecting these titles, I'm all the more curious about the man, his films, and his spirituality.

MY TOP TEN CRITERIONS
Ramin Bahrani

Writer-director Ramin Bahrani’s first two feature films, Man Push Cart (2005) and Chop Shop (2007) have won awards and acclaim all over the world, from Venice to Cannes to the U.S. Chop Shop also won Bahrani the Someone to Watch Independent Spirit Award in 2008. Bahrani is currently in postproduction on his third feature, Goodbye Solo.

1. Nanook of the North
Robert Flaherty
Robert Flaherty set his camera down and had the audacity and humanity to step back. I like Man of Aran even better. Without these films there would not have been La terra trema, Rome Open City (A&F 100), Bicycle Thieves, Where Is the Friend’s House?, Il posto . . . Such simple and moving storytelling, and so profoundly in touch with what it means to be human in this world. He has forever erased the line between fiction and documentary. What is left, fabricated or not, is a visual poem that challenges how we live and how we see, and all the while accepting life for what it is.

2. Mama Roma
Pier Paolo Pasolini
Pasolini was murdered for a reason: he was a real artist with something to say that too many people did not want to hear. Nobody brings as much love and anger, and challenges and questions, as PPP. His films explode with life and energy, politics, religion, doubt, devotion, humor, and irony, and force you to rethink everything in your life and outside your life. Each frame is a revolution and a dare to the viewer. Bertolucci said, “You can tell when Pasolini puts the pen down and picks up the camera.” Which other filmmakers can claim that this quote would be true of them? A devastating majority of films are just filmed screenplays. Pasolini belongs to the rare group of artists who make films. Empty yourself, wash your eyes and ears, and for the first time really watch and listen to what the master has to say.

3. The Flowers of St. Francis (A&F 100)
Roberto Rossellini
My favorite from Rossellini. A sublime call to us all to be good, even at our own expense. Ten times more subversive and inspiring than any in the long list of meaningless yet much-lauded films made about the “lessons” of war, injustice, and inhumanity. This is the film everyone should have been watching in the last eight years. Fellini’s humor and Rossellini’s ironic wit are at their very best here. The monks are brilliant in their roles. A must-see gem. Videomatica

4. Il Posto
Ermanno Olmi
A great Italian film from the often ignored Olmi (please also see The Tree of Wooden Clogs). The scenes between young Domenico and Antonietta are so real you will think you have witnessed them yourself while standing outside a café window. Wonderful mix of humor and sadness, and of lightness in the face of the eternal meaninglessness of society’s damning labyrinth. The scenes go by so effortlessly, yet by the end you’re profoundly moved without understanding how Olmi has done it.

Videomatica

5. Umberto D. (a favourite of Doug Cummings)
Vittorio De Sica
I first saw this as a college student at one of the city’s repertory cinemas, in the early nineties, and will never forget it. One of the most simple and moving films ever made about man not losing his dignity in the face of our eternal fate and society’s greed. How to stay alive and human when you are no longer useful to our indifferent world? How to maintain hope when all that is left is to turn into the dust from which we came? Videomatica

6. L’avventura
Michelanglo Antonini
Every director should have a respect for the frame, and here Antonioni reminds us of that lesson shot after shot. He shocked Cannes but without being exploitative, which is more than most enfants terribles in Cannes’ history can claim. Antonioni shocked by being a ruefully disturbing mirror into the souls of his generation. Sandro’s empty desires, and Claudia’s blind and desperate search for meaning and connection in the deadly silence of life, are as true to our times as to when the film was made. Monica Vitti astounds with her beauty and her mystery, and Antonioni’s courage to explain nothing but allow us to feel and question everything is a testament to his brilliance.

7. Au hasard Balthazar (A&F 100)
Robert Bresson
One lesson after another from the master to all his students. A film that makes you ashamed to be part of the human race, and then fills you with the courage to be better. Videomatica

8. Scenes from a Marriage (full TV version)
Ingmar Bergman
A great first-date movie! Well . . . perhaps not. I have never seen a more truthful and honest account of human relationships. Shockingly simple in its creation, once again proving how hard it is to be simple and how it is usually much more profound. Bergman keeps cutting away to reveal more, not less. He has done the difficult and dirty work for us. Watch and accept the truth about our relationships, and then, like all of mankind, try to avoid your fate.

9. Nights of Cabiria
Federico Fellini
Along with La dolce vita and I vitelloni, my favorite from Fellini. So much love and hope in the face of the bastards who seem to run this world. Masani is brilliant and PPP’s dialogues and understanding of the “wretched of the earth” are perhaps Fellini’s good karma for the gifts he brought Rossellini in The Flowers of St. Francis seven years prior. Daring, loving, and painful. Thank you for not ending this one at the sea, but instead on the road, with trees, music, tears, and smiles—a real carnival in the face of death. Videomatica

10. Seven Samurai
Akira Kurosawa
Lessons one through one hundred in how to write, shoot, direct, and edit a film. Sit down and enjoy.

Recent Criterion release: Au Revoir, Les Enfants

I've wanted to see this film for a long time, but haven't managed to do so. Have always been curious how the Jewish-Christian themes play themselves out. New on Criterion, available at Videomatica.

Au revoir les enfants tells a heartbreaking story of friendship and devastating loss between two boys living in Nazi-occupied France. At a provincial Catholic boarding school, the precocious youths enjoy true camaraderie—until a secret is revealed. Based on events from writer-director Malle’s own childhood, the film is a subtle, precisely observed tale of courage, cowardice, and tragic awakening.

YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU

YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU (1938, USA, Frank Capra, Robert Riskin screenplay from Kaufman & Hart stage play)
YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU (1984, USA, Kirk Browning & Ellis Rabb)
"The die is cast. I'm a lily."
"Have some popcorn."

In May and June of 1938, exactly seventy years ago, Frank Capra was on a Hollywood soundstage filming "You Can't Take It With You." The Kaufman and Hart comedy – by the turn of the millenium, the most-performed play in North America – was fresh from Broadway. Just like Capra's young romantic lead, Jimmy Stewart, who'd been in California only long enough to hook up with his buddy Henry Fonda, pick up small roles in a handful of studio pictures, and carry on a brief fling with Ginger Rogers (who may or may not have been a good dancer: far be it from me to weigh in on that particular argument).

Frank Capra saw in his unknown "aw shucks" leading man the quintessential movie star, and in this wonderfully human comedy something more divine than just a roomful of quirky characters. He wanted to make a film that would "dramatize Love Thy Neighbor in living drama. What the world's churches were preaching to apathetic congregations, my universal language of film might say more entertainingly to audiences."

Sounds like a lot of weight to put on a charming little comedy about nonconformity. But you know, the longer I spend around this surprisingly substantial story, the more I come to think he might be right. Grandpa Vanderhof's amiable contempt for the things of this world – like paying taxes that inevitably seem to end up bankrolling useless wars – smacks of the radical subversiveness of Jesus' gospel, an abandonment to divine providence that's more than just a little counter-cultural. In Depression-era America, or in rich-still-getting-richer, poor-still-getting-poorer British Columbia three quarters of a century later.

Disappointingly, Capra also saw here something less divine than a roomful of quirky characters: he remakes this play about unconventionality into something decidely more conventional, shifting the love story centre-stage and backgrounding the richly detailed communalism that gives context not only for the romance but for the unabashed individualism of its proto-hippy free spirits. Moss and Hart's gently anarchic celebration of good old Yankee eccentricity frames the virtues of idiosyncracy in community: the Vanderhof-Sycamore clan may be self-directed, but never self-serving or self-sufficient.

The original play is available on video, with Jason Robards taped in performance during a mid-eighties Broadway run. Filmed stage productions are tricky: performances large enough to fill a thousand-seat house can read false on screen, and outsize comic characterizations in particular go over the top, but still it's grand to see the story in all its good-natured anarchy – political as well as personal. (What this play need is human-scaled performances in the intimacy of a living room sized theatre. Hmm...)

I do love the Capra film treatment for one scene, though. Mr Poppins is a closet inventor who tallies numbers at Mr Kirby's bank – until the day Grandpa Vanderhof lures him away, a Depression-era Matthew forsaking the counting-house for a bagful of popcorn and a sudden vision of freedom;
"How'd you like to come over to our house and work on your gadgets? Everybody over to our place does just what he wants to do."
"But how would I live?"
"Same way we do."
"But who takes care of you?"
"The same one that takes care of the lilies, Mr Poppins. Except that we toil a little, spin a little, have a barrel of fun. If you want to, come on over and become a lily too."
"A lily? Me, a lily of the field?"

IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE


The Capra film version is available at Videomatica

SF Notes: Sight & Sound, Mar 2008

Soul Food movies?

Report on Sundance by Tom Charity; "The high-profile disappointments came thick and fast: Mark Pellington's egregious HENRY POOLE IS HERE found God in a waterstain...."

Other films of interest

Report on Sundance by Tom Charity; "Jonathan Levine's THE WACKNESS is a superior example...of the quirky, dysfunctional family/coming-of-age comedy with which Sundance has become synonymous.... Two dramatic competition entries stood out in sharp relief from the rest. BALLAST and SUGAR both draw inspiration from European realist cinema - the Dardennes and Ken Loach - to focus on marginalised figures coping with the prospect of continued poverty and struggle. SUGAR is no more a conventional sports movie than HALF NELSON was a typical tribute to an inspirational teacher. Young Dominican hopeful Miguel Santo is brought to the US for a tryout with the (fictional) Kansas City Knights, an induction that involves a spell in the minor leagues in rural Iowa. Even tempo and quiet observational style... BALLAST is even better. Explores the after-effects of the death of a storekeeper on his twin brother, who ran the store with him, his estranged wife and teenage son. The movie is constantly unexpected, starting with its pared-down dialogue and tight, Bressonian performance.... "

Apr 18: Ben X

BEN X is at the Granville 7 through May 1.

Darrell Manson is a fellow FFCC writer, who was part of the Ecumenical Jury at the Montreal Film Festival. They selected BEN X for their prize, and Darrell lists it as his favourite - and if I'm not mistaken, his "most spiritually significant" - film of 2007. It opens here in late April. Here's part of Darrel's Hollywood Jesus review;

At the World Film Festival in Montreal, this film was seen by an audience for the first time. That screening was followed by a very exuberant standing ovation—far more enthusiastic than the applause that followed other films. This is indeed a rare film that combines all the elements that can make a film great—an engaging story, interesting twists and shifts, insight into the human condition and deeper meanings of life. The festival jury recognized Ben X by giving it a share of the top prize, the Grand Prix of the Americas. It was also voted the most popular film by the public.

And here's the PSA;

BEN X, Belgian director Nic Balthazar's portrait of a mildly autistic boy bullied at school, received standing ovations at both of its screenings at the 2007 Montreal World Film Festival, where it received the Audience Award, the Ecumenical Prize and shared the juried Grand Prix of Americas. It also received the Black Pearl Grand Jury Prize for Best Feature Film at Abu Dhabi, and it was Belgium's official contender for a Best Foreign Film Oscar.

Ben (newcomer Greg Timmermans) is different. He never speaks, except to his mother and to his little brother. He gets high grades, but is viewed as “Frankenstein” and “the Martian” by classmates at the high school he attends. Ben’s only solace is the time he spends playing his favourite online computer game Archlord, where he can be the fearless hero slaying enemies left and right. Ben tries hard to train himself for the real world he lives in. The harsh world of a technical school is for him a daily kind of living hell.

Ben X is a powerful figure in the world of ArchLord. He is everything that the teenage Ben is not. As the horror of being a daily subject to bullying grows, Ben devises a plan. Then Scarlite (Laura Verlinden), the girl he has met in his on-line game, appears in the real-world to point the way. That wasn’t part of the plan... Together, they concoct the ultimate end-game.

Using an exciting mixture of virtual reality, live-action and docudrama, Balthazar creates a riveting portrait of autism and its deep impact on both the autistic person and their families and community.

BEN X marks Nic Balthazar’s film directorial debut. It is adapted from his 2002 novel ‘Niets was alles wat hij zei’ (‘Nothing Was All He Said’) and his hugely successful stage play, which were both inspired by actual events – the suicide of a mildly autistic Belgian student who was virtually harassed to death.

BEN X also includes an example of technological innovation. It is the first film in which a director works in cyberspace with virtual actors. In the role-playing computer game ArchLord by Codemasters, a number of scenes were shot online with several gamers playing entire scenes with virtual characters on the basis of directives given by the director. These scenes were subsequently integrated into the live-action film images.

*

BEN X, Belgian director Nic Balthazar's portrait of a mildly autistic boy bullied at school, received standing ovations at both of its screenings at the 2007 Montreal World Film Festival, where it received the Audience Award, the Ecumenical Prize and shared the juried Grand Prix of Americas. It also received the Black Pearl Grand Jury Prize for Best Feature Film at Abu Dhabi, and it was Belgium's official contender for a Best Foreign Film Oscar.

Ben (newcomer Greg Timmermans) is different. He never speaks, except to his mother and to his little brother. He gets high grades, but is viewed as “Frankenstein” and “the Martian” by classmates at the high school he attends. Ben’s only solace is the time he spends playing his favourite online computer game Archlord, where he can be the fearless hero slaying enemies left and right. Ben tries hard to train himself for the real world he lives in. The harsh world of a technical school is for him a daily kind of living hell.

Ben X is a powerful figure in the world of ArchLord. He is everything that the teenage Ben is not. As the horror of being a daily subject to bullying grows, Ben devises a plan. Then Scarlite (Laura Verlinden), the girl he has met in his on-line game, appears in the real-world to point the way. That wasn’t part of the plan... Together, they concoct the ultimate end-game.

Using an exciting mixture of virtual reality, live-action and docudrama, Balthazar creates a riveting portrait of autism and its deep impact on both the autistic person and their families and community.

BEN X marks Nic Balthazar’s film directorial debut. It is adapted from his 2002 novel ‘Niets was alles wat hij zei’ (‘Nothing Was All He Said’) and his hugely successful stage play, which were both inspired by actual events – the suicide of a mildly autistic Belgian student who was virtually harassed to death.

BEN X also includes an example of technological innovation. It is the first film in which a director works in cyberspace with virtual actors. In the role-playing computer game ArchLord by Codemasters, a number of scenes were shot online with several gamers playing entire scenes with virtual characters on the basis of directives given by the director. These scenes were subsequently integrated into the live-action film images.

A&F 100 Nominees, 2008

Over at the Arts & Faith discussion board back in 2004 we created a list of 100 Spiritually Significant Films. In 2005 Alan Thomas took that over from me, then repeated the process in 2006. He skipped 2007, but now the nominations are open for another run at the whole process.

Folks at A&F have put forward an immense number of nominees to be considered in this year's voting. It's a fascinating compendium of films that some (probably Christian) film buff somewhere finds "spiritually significant." I'm going to flag the ones that, on first pass through, would be most likely to get my votes. See how close we come to a hundred.

And if all this is something you want to get in on, just hop over to Arts & Faith, become a member (it's ultra-cheap), and cast your votes!

2008 Nominees
(my first-round picks in bold, my "nah" titles in italics)

Adam's Apples

The Addiction

After Life

Amadeus

Amistad

Andrei Rublev

The Apostle

The Apu Trilogy

L'Argent

Autumn in New York

Babel

Babette's Feast

Au Hasard Balthazar

Becket

Being There
Sure a guy walks on water, but that doesn't make him a Christ figure. Faith is the target, not the point.

The Believer

The Best Years of Our Lives

The Bicycle Thief

The Big Kahuna
Tackles spiritual things, and I could add it to my list. But at the moment, the fact that I think the film doesn't play fair keeps it from being a first round pick for me.

Black Narcissus

Black Robe

Blade Runner
I'm closer to considering this than I used to be. Certainly has lots of religious references layered in.

The Blood of Jesus (aka The Glory Road)

Breaking The Waves

Bruce Almighty

Chariots of Fire

Children of Men

People find Nativity resonances, but that falls so far short of the spiritual significance of the novel it's based on, I just can't get excited. Would The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe seem quite so spiritually significant if you took out that lion character?

A Christmas Carol

Citizen Kane

Greatest film ever made, many say. I have yet to succumb to its glories, but intend to give it another run. S'pose it could be considered a cinematic gloss on "What profiteth a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul."  So maybe I'll come around.

Close-Up (aka Nema-ye Nazdik)

The Color of Paradise

Cries and Whispers

Crimes And Misdemeanors

Cry, the Beloved Country

The Da Vinci Code

Can't take the ideas seriously, can't take the film seriously.

Day of Wrath

The Day the Earth Stood Still
Definite Christ symbolism, but - for all its rep - really cheesy fifties sci-fi corn.

Days of Heaven

Dead Man Walking

Death: A Love Story

The Decalogue

Dersu Uzala

Devil's Playground

The Diary of a Country Priest

Distant (aka Uzak)

Dogma

Dogville

La Dolce Vita
Have tried watching it twice, don't get too far.  Jesus hanging from the copter is potent. Need to see the whole thing to know if it oughta rank, though, or if the fuss about it as a religious film is just because there was such slim pickin's back in the sixties.

Donnie Darko

Downfall

Dream of Light

East of Eden

The Elephant Man

Entertaining Angels: The Dorothy Day Story

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

This keeps getting nominated, even voted for, but nobody anywhere's even tried to reply to my request that they make the case that there's something distinctly spiritual about the film. Clever film about either the persistence or impermanence of romantic love, but where's the God stuff, or even ethical stuff?

Europa '51
Probably belongs on my list, but I've not yet seen it.

The Exorcist
Believe it or not, the book was a significant influence on my early Christian life.  But it's been 25 years, and I've not yet seen the film, so for now...

Faust

Fearless

Fiddler on the Roof

Field of Dreams

Fight Club
Maybe almost. I think the ending diminishes the film, but even that is reaching for something spiritual, maybe Pauline?

Le Fils (aka The Son)
Absolutely. But where's L'Enfant?!?!?!!!!!  Guess I needed to have nominated it.  Too bad this year's noms came along when my attention was demanded elsewhere.

The Fisher King

At one time, I would have said so.  But rewatching it more recently, the film didn't wear well for me.

Flock of Dodos: The Evolution-Intelligent Design Circus

The Flowers of St. Francis (aka Francesco, giullare di Dio)

Forgiveness

The Fountain

The Godfather (trilogy)
Under consideration. Not for the Catholicism, which I'm afraid just feels cultural to me. But certainly a powerful, even mythic tale of the compromise and loss of a human soul.

Godspell

Golgotha

The Good Son

The Gospel According to Matthew (aka Il Vangelo Secondo Matteo)

The Gospel of John

The Grapes of Wrath

Grave of the Fireflies (aka Hotaru no haka)

The Green Mile

Groundhog Day

Hannah and Her Sisters

He Who Must Die (aka Celui qui doit mourir)
Sure want to see this.

Heaven

Hell House
Basically an "Aren't Those Christians Freaks?" show, though the glimpses of real faith (and maybe even a miracle?) are fascinating.

The Hiding Place

Hotel Rwanda

Very fine movie, but I don't see the specifically spiritual referent. And if we list all the films that have a conscience about atrocities as being spiritually significant...

I Heart Huckabees
Sophomoric philosophical goofing around.

Ikiru (aka To Live)

In America

Half of a terrific movie, but it loses its nerve and therefore its significance.

In Your Hands (aka Forbrydelser)

The Iron Giant

It's A Wonderful Life

Jalsaghar (aka The Music Room)

Jean de Florette / Manon of the Spring

Jesus Christ Superstar

Jesus of Montreal

Jesus of Nazareth

The Jeweller's Shop (aka La Bottega dell'orefice)

Joyeux Noel (aka Merry Christmas)

Koyaanisqatsi (aka Life Out of Balance)
Need to see this.

Kundun

The Last Temptation Of Christ

Late Spring (aka Banshun)

Life is Beautiful

I know this is deeply affecting and spiritual to many. But I find it maudlin, way too far across the line into sentiment and wishful thinking. 

Life of Brian

Lilies of the Field

The Lord of the Rings trilogy

Lost in Translation

Good film. A moral choice is made - or an immoral one not made - but that's not enough to put it into this category for me.

Luther

Magnolia
As spiritually significant as they get.  My #2 favourite film.

Make Way for Tomorrow

A Man Escaped (aka Un condamne a mort s'est echappe ou Le vent souffle ou il veut)

A Man for All Seasons

The Man Who Planted Trees (aka L'Homme qui plantait des arbres)

The Man Without A Past (aka Mies vailla menneisyytta)

The Matrix
I know, it ends up salvation by violent mayhem, which doesn't sit so well with this pacifist. But the first half potently evoked my own experience of spiritual awakening.

Meet John Doe

Millions

The Miracle Maker 

The Mirror (aka Zerkalo)

Les Miserables

Les Miserables du vingtieme siecle

The Mission

Molokai: The Story of Father Damien

A Moment of Innocence (aka Nun va Goldoon)

Mosquito Coast
Another film that makes obvious attacks on Christians. So how is it, then, spiritual?

Most (aka The Bridge)

The Motorcycle Diaries (aka Diarios de motocicleta)

The first steps in a young man's journey toward militant atheist Marxism?  I don't get it. Sure he liked lepers, but am I the only person who found the whole swim across the river climax kind of melodramatic and dumb?

My Night at Maud's (aka Ma nuit chez Maud)
A near miss for me. Definite spiritual conundrum, embodied in a believable human experience. And faith front and centre, in a way that was especially rare in the film's time period.  Ultimately, I think it only misses my first round nod because it doesn't particularly engage or affect me.

Nazarin

The New World
Jeffrey Overstreet almost persuades me: the second half is certainly all about authentic Christian faith, about conversion, all sorts of good stuff.  And what feels like gross film-making ineptitude to me (but transcendent artistry to Jeff) grated on me less my last time through. Closer to making the cut than previously.

The Night Of The Hunter
A classic. But the style held me at arm's length, and I bailed out not all that far in.  Deserves repeated tries.

The Night (aka La Notte)

Nights of Cabiria (aka Le Notti di Cabiria)
Need to see it.  By rep, quite possible candidate.

Nostalghia

Not of This World (aka Fuori dal mondo)

Not One Less (aka Yi ge dou bu neng shao)

O Brother, Where Art Thou?

On The Waterfront

Open City (aka Roma, citta aperta)

Ordet (aka The Word)

Pan's Labyrinth (aka El Laberinto del fauno)
Huge spiritual impact, for me.

Paradise Road

The Passion of Joan of Arc (aka La Passion De Jeanne D'arc)

The Passion Of The Christ

Perceval (aka Perceval le Gallois)

The Perfect Stranger

Peter and Paul

Pickpocket
Need to see this. Definite contender, I suspect.

Places in the Heart
That final scene is spiritually significant, 100%.  But I'm not sure that ought to haul the whole film into contention.

Ponette

The Prince Of Egypt

La Promesse
Terrific film. Just doesn't have quite the direct connection to things I would consider quite so directly spiritual as L'Enfant or The Son.

The Purple Rose of Cairo

Quiz Show

Huh?  Ethical stuff, I guess? 

Rashomon

Red Beard (aka Akahige)

Repentance (aka Monanieba)
Really curious to see this glasnost flick. Rare for a Russian film to deal directly with Christian elements.

Requiem for a Dream

The River

Romero

Rosetta
See La Promesse.

The Sacrifice (aka Offret - Sacrificatio)

Saints and Soldiers

Sansho the Bailiff (aka Sanshô dayû)

Saved!

Say Amen, Somebody

Schindler's List

Secrets & Lies
Need to see this again.  It was a top twenty favourite when I saw it when it was released, but I don't remember a specifically spiritual/religious angle.  Probably just my blurry memory.

The Seventh Seal (aka Det Sjunde Inseglet)

Shadowlands

The Shawshank Redemption

Shoah

Signs

Definitely tackles spiritual themes, but in such a dumb way.

The Silence (aka Tystnaden)

The Sixth Sense

Sling Blade

Solaris (aka Solyaris)
Need to see this.  Very likely for my list, unless I have the averse reaction I had to STALKER. 

The Song of Bernadette

Songs From the Second Floor 

Sophie's Choice

One of the great, devastating moral conundrums. But not quite exactly spiritual, to me.

The Sound of Music

A nuns on the run does not a spiritual classic make.

Spirited Away (aka Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi)

Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring

Stalker

Stars in My Crown

Stevie

The Straight Story

Stromboli

Summer / The Green Ray (aka Le Rayon vert)
Need to see this.  A likely contender.

Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans

The Sweet Hereafter

Tales of Ugetsu (aka Ugetsu monogatari)

Mythic for sure. Religious to some, yes. But it's not a religion I'm attuned to, so for me, makes no spiritual connection

A Taste of Cherry 

The Ten Commandments

Tender Mercies
As spiritually significant as they get. My #1 favourite film.

Therese

The Third Miracle

13 Conversations About One Thing
Its detractors say not, but I can't see how one can overlook the Ecclesiastes themes - and Ecclesiastes is these days pretty much my Number One Bible Book.  But I think if you order the splintered narratives and look real carefully at the choice/action/consequence logic of the story, it goes well beyond that to assert some pretty powerful things about grace, providence, and the life of faith. 

The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada

Three Colors Trilogy 

To End All Wars

Decidedly religious.  Too religious, there's the problem. It's all message, all worldview assertion.  

To Kill a Mockingbird

Tokyo Story (aka Tokyo Monogatari)
Sublime film, and I don't doubt that it is spiritual.  But its spirituality is unknown to me, and I don't pick up the resonances with my own faith.  Not that it would have to toe the Christian line, but what it evokes in me I don't specifically connect with my spiritualit.

 
Touching the Void

Gripping story.  Spiritual?

The Tree of Wooden Clogs

Trial of Joan of Arc (aka Proces de Jeanne d'Arc)

The Trip to Bountiful

The Truman Show

I can make the argument about it spiritual facets, but truth be told, it still doesn't powerfully connect with me.  A little too head-oriented, a little too commercial a gloss.

2001: A Space Odyssey

Awe and wonder are evoked, sure - but they're distinctly meant NOT to be religious awe and wonder.  Jeez, Arthur C. Clarke was the Richard Dawkin of his day - he figures we Christian types are deluded, for goodness sake!  And 2001 is a bit of a manifesto along those lines.  You see this a spiritual, you need to know you're reading very much against the grain.  

Unforgiven

The United States of Leland

Vanya on 42nd Street

The Virgin Spring

Waking Life

Werckmeister Harmonies

The Wicker Man

Number One is serious about spirituality, sure enough. But it ain't no spirituality I can celebrate, I must say.  The whole human sacrifice thing I find just a bit problematic.

Wild Strawberries 

The Wind Will Carry Us

Wings of Desire

Winter Light

Wit

Witness

The Year Of Living Dangerously

Yi Yi: A One and a Two

Zelig

Very funny. And it's got a rabbi in it...

Apr 23: Opening, Henry Poole Is Here

As Soul Food Movie pal Jason points out, bit of a "Halo" vibe to this one...

May 6 - Jun 12: Bruce Marchfelder, History Of Cinema

Bruce Marchfelder is offering a film history course at Corpus Christi on the UBC campus, May 6 - June 12. Highly recommended. Click here for details.

Jun 5-12: SILENT LIGHT Plays VanCity!

At last! The Carlos Reygadas film we've been awaiting for months is on its way. (Here's a link to the earlier post. SILENT LIGHT will play the Vancity Theatre June 5-12.

Here's the VanCity blurb;

SILENT LIGHT
Mexico, France, Germany, Netherlands, 2007, 126 min, 35mm
Directed By: Carlos Reygadas
Cast: Elizabeth Fehr, Jacobo Klassen, Maria Pankratz, Miriam Toews, Cornelio Wall, Peter Wall
This film is not rated. No children under 18.
VANCOUVER PREMIERE // VANCITY THEATRE EXCLUSIVE FIRST RUN

Winner of the 2007 Cannes Jury Prize and five Golden Ariels (the Mexican film awards) including best film and director, Carlos Reygadas’ controversial opus opens our eyes to a world never seen before on film: the Mexican Mennonite community in the northern Chihuahua province. The story is human interaction at its most elemental: devoted father Johan, happily married to Esther (Winnipeg Mennonite author Miriam Toews, one of a cast of non-professionals) has a crisis of faith when he is attracted to another woman. Reygadas situates his film square in the transcendental tradition of Bresson and Dreyer, and doesn’t compromise an inch in offering up a haunting, visionary work that cements him as one of contemporary cinema’s most unique artists.

“Stunningly beautiful…the admirably unpredictable Reygadas has made the world’s first talking picture in the medieval German Plautdietsch dialect. Even more than the director’s previous films, including his 2005 black comedy Battle in Heaven, Silent Light is a behavioral experiment. Everything is monumentally deliberate, from the human interactions to the stolidly bucolic representation of Mennonite domesticity to the extraordinary, widescreen landscape shots that bracket the action. Oscillating between the sacred and the profane, Reygadas’ elemental tale of love and betrayal is part ethnographic documentary and part 16th-century psychodrama, with an obvious debt to Carl Theodor Dreyer. Was Reygadas looking for the appropriate environment for a Dreyer remake—or did Dreyer’s Ordet present the most ‘natural’ scenario for a Mennonite passion play?”  J. Hoberman, The Village Voice

THE VISITOR: New film from STATION AGENT director!

Thomas McCarthy directed THE STATION AGENT, which is much loved around these parts.  His new film, THE VISITOR, opened in limited release April 11, and goes into wider release in the States April 18.  We'll keep our eyes open for its Vancouver run. 

Definitely avoid viewing the trailer. Looks like it tells at least three quarters of the story. Darn I hate that.

Apr 2-9: 4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days

The Palme d'Or winner is coming soon, for a one-week run at the VanCity. #12 on the Movie City News critic poll. (And hey: once I've seen it, I'll have seen all of the top 22 MCN picks. Cool.) Closes two days before BELLA opens, another of the abortion-themed films of 2007.

4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS & 2 DAYS
April 2-9

Weds 7:00pm, Thurs 8:45pm, Fri 7:00pm, Sat 8:45pm, Sun 7:00pm, Mon 8:45pm, Tues 7:00pm, Weds 8:45pm

Romania 2007 // Director: Cristian Mungiu // 113 min // 35mm

Buy tickets for 4 Months 3 Weeks & 2 Days.

There are too many awards and accolades to list for the most acclaimed foreign film of 2007, but it began with the Cannes Palme d'Or and continued through year-end top-ten lists. Cristian Mungiu's intensely gripping and immaculately shot story of the procurement of an illegal abortion in communist-era Romania deserves to be seen on the widescreen if you missed it at last year's VIFF.
"Harrowing and brilliantly acted... Generates almost unbearable suspense."—The New York Times

This film is not rated. No children under 18.

Apr 11: BELLA opens in Vancouver

People - including people closely involved with the film - have been tying this film to a strong pro life campaign, and following a PASSION OF THE CHRIST church marketing plan.  But word is, the film is plenty good standing on its own, and is less agenda-driven than the promotional context might suggest. (Just to be clear, I'm not commenting on this particular agenda. I'm only suggesting that when agendas drive films, the film usually stink). BELLA did very well at TIFF, and distribution is through regular channels.  Here's the press release;

BELLA WILL OPEN IN VANCOUVER ON APRIL 11, 2008

BELLA, winner of the People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival, stars Latino heartthrob Eduardo Verástegui (Chasing Papi) as José, a strikingly handsome and charming young soccer star on the rise – when a tragic accident cuts his career short and changes his life. Now a cook in his brother’s restaurant, José retreats from the world until Nina (Tammy Blanchard, The Good Shepherd, Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows), a beautiful waitress struggling to make it in New York City, discovers something about herself that she’s unprepared for. In one irreversible moment, a simple act of kindness brings them together and turns an ordinary day into an unforgettable experience. Before the day is through, José must confront his haunted past to show Nina how the healing power of love can help her embrace the future. Inspired by true events, BELLA is a heartwarming story about friendship, family and our capacity for love in the face of the unexpected.

BELLA, the feature directorial debut from Alejandro Gomez Monteverde, became “the fall’s biggest surprise” according to the Wall Street Journal and finished the year as one of the top 10 highest grossing independent films of 2007.

NOW PLAYING: Soul Food Movies onscreen in Vancouver

Just got back from U2 3D at the IMAX theatre downtown.  Now there's an Easter film: listened to 40 on the drive home, I've Eastered.  "I will sing, sing a new song..."  (Not that 40 is in the film, just so you know. With Or Without You closes the concert, so I left the theatre with another near-Biblical phrase running through my head, "And you give yourself away, and you give, and you give, and you give yourself away..."

The movie I've been telling everybody to see is IN BRUGES, which is at the Scotiabank Theatre (damn, I can hardly bring myself to type that: I can't recommend a movie without advertising a fucking bank?!).  The movie's as crude and crass as that sentence, funny as hell, and ends up serious soul food.  I've already seen it twice, in the theatre: I don't do that too often.

ATONEMENT is at Denham Place at 9:10 each night: doesn't completely work, but the opening is complex and well-observed, and what follows has stayed with me and won my admiration in retrospect, though it didn't play well for me while watching.  THE DIVING BELL & THE BUTTERFLY is the most thoroughly cinematic film of 2007, made from an unfilmable memoir: so much for words like "impossible" and "can't" and "wouldn't work."  NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN and THERE WILL BE BLOOD hang in there, both stories that tell tough truth in portraying real evil (though I wish the gospel had been something but a sham in the latter: still, should have expected - nobody who makes movies has much time for healing evangelists except maybe Robert Duvall).  

Of course, the soul food feast is at the video stores these days, INTO THE WILD chief among them.  They say IN THE VALLEY OF ELAH does more than just reference David and Goliath in the title, and the flawed apocalyptic actioner I AM LEGEND, which goes out of its way to name-check God. GONE BABY GONE works its way to one heck of an ethical dilemma, I haven't seen AUGUST RUSH - has a pretty "not-quite-bit-almost-straight-to-video" vibe, but I guess it's set in or around a storefront church? Docs: IN THE SHADOW OF THE MOON invokes wonder and even some capital-T Transcendence, while LAKE OF FIRE looks at Roe v Wade, church v abortion stuff.  And then there's THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD and I'M NOT THERE, cinematic masterpieces that may or may not contain traces of soul food.  And Danny Boyle's SUNSHINE got overlooked, but I was sad to see it vanish before I could see it: I'll let you know what I think when I get round to it, hopefully soon. And of course it's become obligatory to see JUNO and ONCE, two big-hearted small films that have ended up with huge word of mouth bordering on hype: don't let that put you off, they're terrific little movies, just let them be what they are and enjoy.  Oh, and LARS & THE REAL GIRL belongs on that list as well.

Funny Games: Haneke a Puritan?

One film I don't think I'll be able to bring myself to see is Michael Haneke's new English language remake of his gruesome European original FUNNY GAMES. But I'm almost tempted - almost - after reading this excerpt from a Gabriel McKee article, posted by Peter Chattaway;

The real reason it makes so much sense for Haneke to remake this film, then, is that its attitude toward sin is so thoroughly Puritan. The film essentially adapts Matthew 5:28 to a different sin: “Everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart,” Jesus states. Haneke is basically saying: “Anyone who watches Saw IV has already committed murder in his heart.” He makes the case for a direct link between watching torture porn and being complacent to real torture, if not actually committing it.

For a thoroughly progressive filmgoer who is nonetheless a big Dirty Harry fan, that can be a tough pill to swallow. But it’s not exactly a new argument: after all, the early Christian church objected to the theater as much as the gladiatorial arena. . . .
It’s difficult to look at a film like Funny Games in the traditional terms of a film review, or even a casual discussion. You can’t really like or dislike a movie like this; it doesn’t work that way. In that regard, it’s similar to another recent film that is both about the depiction of violence and an example of it, a film that similarly seeks to make its audience complicit in the brutality onscreen: Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ. As with Gibson’s film, there are those who will hate Funny Games, but that’s generally because they’re looking at it as a movie among other movies. Ebert is onto something when he states that “this isn’t a movie, it’s a thesis,” but by that token it’s difficult to discuss in the terms of a movie review. Its goals and its methods are entirely elsewhere. But it’s not exactly a thesis—it’s a sermon. Haneke admonishes us to hate sin; unfortunately for him it’s a sin that most of us Dirty Harry fans aren’t willing to give up.

Gabriel McKee, Religion Dispatches, March 17

Faith & Film Critics Circle: Best of 2007

The votes are tallied, and here are our results. FFCC members whose names you might know include Rob Johnston, Catherine Barsotti, Peter Chattaway, Jeffrey Overstreet, Matt Page, Steven Greydanus and moi - among others.

Most Significant Exploration of Spiritual Themes: Into Great Silence
"Into Great Silence offers an implicit challenge, not so much to the trappings of modernity — modern technology crops up here and there in the monks’ world, occasionally to humorous effect — as to the spiritual disconnectedness and social fragmentation of a world in decay, to the postmodern incapacity for commitment and sacrifice, to the dissonance and haphazardness of life as we know it. It is not for us, perhaps, this life, yet it isn’t something irrelevant or unrelated either. The silence of the monks has something to say to us, if we have ears to hear." Steven D. Greydanus, Decent Films Guide
Other nominations:
•After the Wedding
•Amazing Grace
•Atonement
•Into the Wild
•Lars and the Real Girl

Best Narrative Film: There Will Be Blood
Other nominations:
•The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
•The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
•Lars and the Real Girl
•No Country for Old Men

Best Documentary: Into Great Silence
Other nominations:
•The Devil Came on Horseback
•In the Shadow of the Moon
•The King of Kong
•No End in Sight

Best Film for the Whole Family: Ratatouille
Other nominations:
•The Bridge to Terabithia
•Dan in Real Life
•Enchanted
•In the Shadow of the Moon

Best Director: Paul Thomas Anderson – There Will Be Blood
Other nominations:
•Brad Bird – Ratatouille
•Joel and Ethan Coen – No Country for Old Men
•Todd Haynes – I’m Not There
•Julian Schnabel – The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Best Performance by an Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis – There Will Be Blood
Other nominations:
•Christian Bale – Rescue Dawn
•Russell Crowe – 3:10 to Yuma
•Johnny Depp – Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
•Ryan Gosling – Lars and the Real Girl

Best Performance by an Actress: Ellen Page – Juno
Other nominations:
•Amy Adams – Enchanted
•Julie Christie – Away from Her
•Marion Cotillard – La Vie en Rose
•Laura Linney – The Savages

Best Performance by a Child: Saoirse Ronan – Atonement
Other nominations:
•Dillon Freasier – There Will Be Blood
•AnnaSophia Robb – The Bridge to Terabithia
•Ed Sanders – Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
•Thomas Turgoose – This Is England

Best Supporting Performance by an Actor (tie): Casey Affleck – The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, and Javier Bardem – No Country for Old Men
Other nominations:
•Paul Dano – There Will Be Blood
•Philip Seymour Hoffman – Charlie Wilson’s War
•Hal Holbrook – Into the Wild

Best Supporting Performance by an Actress (tie): Cate Blanchett – I’m Not There
Jennifer Garner – Juno
Other nominations:
•Emily Mortimer – Lars and the Real Girl
•Amy Ryan – Gone Baby Gone
•Tilda Swinton – Michael Clayton

Best Ensemble Cast: Lars and the Real Girl
Other nominations:
•The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
•I’m Not There
•Juno
•Michael Clayton

Best Cinematography: Robert Elswit – There Will Be Blood
Other nominations:
•Roger Deakins – The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
•Roger Deakins – No Country for Old Men
•Eric Gautier – Into the Wild
•Janusz Kaminski – The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Best Original Screenplay: Diablo Cody – Juno
Other nominations:
•Brad Bird (et al.) – Ratatouille
•Todd Haynes & Oren Moverman – I’m Not There
•Anders Thomas Jensen & Susanne Bier – After the Wedding
•Nancy Oliver – Lars and the Real Girl

Best Adapted Screenplay: Joel and Ethan Coen – No Country for Old Men
Other nominations:
•Ben Affleck & Aaron Stockard – Gone Baby Gone
•Paul Thomas Anderson – There Will Be Blood
•Andrew Dominik – The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
•Ronald Harwood – The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
•Sooni Taraporevala – The Namesake

Best Original Score: Dario Marianelli – Atonement
Other nominations:
•Klaus Badelt – Rescue Dawn
•Nick Cave & Warren Ellis – The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
•Michael Giacchino – Ratatouille
•Jonny Greenwood – There Will Be Blood
•Philip Sheppard – In the Shadow of the Moon